After what must've been a grueling casting process, Jamie Foxx has been cast as the titular character in the upcoming Spawn reboot, which will be written and directed by Todd McFarlane. Produced in partnership with Jason Blum's Blumhouse Productions, which is known for its small budget films, Spawn is set to cost $10 million to make.

Don't expect to see Foxx on screen much though, as McFarlane has already stated that Spawn would be in the background of the movie named after him.

"The scariest movies, from Jaws to John Carpenter's The Thing, or The Grudge and The Ring, the boogeyman doesn't talk," McFarlane told Deadline, acknowledging that he's gotten odd stares from studio suits in the past on this approach. "It confuses people because of the comic book industry, and because they all default into their Captain America mindset and I keep saying, no, get into John Carpenter's mindset or Hitchcock. This is not a man in a rubber suit, it's not a hero that's going to come and save the damsel. It's none of that. At the end of the movie, I'm hoping that the audience will say either, is this a ghost that turns into a man, or is it a man that turns into a ghost? I've got a trilogy in mind here, and I'm not inclined in this first movie to do an origin story. I'm mentally exhausted from origin stories."

McFarlane also added that Foxx was in mind when he was writing the film.

"Jamie came to my office five years ago, and he had an idea about Spawn and we talked about it," McFarlane said. "I never forgot him, and when I was writing this script, you sort of plug people in, and he was my visual guy and I never let go of him. When I got done and my agents and everybody was talking about what actor, I said, I'm going to Jamie first and until he says no I don't want to think about anyone else because I've never had anyone else in my head. Luckily, he hadn't forgotten either. I said, 'Hey, I'm back to talk about Spawn again, and he was like, let's do it.'"

McFarlane previously claimed that filming would start in February 2018, but now a fall start date is more likely.